Europe Is Coming
Europe Is Coming
Weekly Update - WFP London Review/CF Semi Finals/New CrossFit CEO
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Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Europe Is Coming podcast. My name is Adam Giles and I'm as ever joined by John Singleton. How are you, John? How's your weekend been? I'm good.
SPEAKER_01It was a nice weekend and also got to follow a lot of a lot of CrossFit. So that was also fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, busy weekend this this weekend in uh in the world of functional fitness. Um so without further ado, we've got quite a lot to cover this week. So where do you want to start? Should we start with WFP?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we can. I mean it was the one I followed the most. Okay. Um it was definitely like yeah, I think if I were to to have watched m it was WFP.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same. I what I try to keep I watched a chunk of the live coverage, which was cool, and then kind of caught up in bits that I missed. Um what was your overall impression of the of the competition?
SPEAKER_01I think it was excellent. You know, it's like the setup that they do, the the floor, the lighting, the way they put the stands, the broadcast, you know, they have like Annie and Katrin commentating and you know, insert footage from rogue, or what you know, it's just the the broadcast level and looking like the professional setup of the floor is just it's it's really good. I mean, there's only a few competitions in the world who do that, and that's probably like rogue games are at that other level. And I'd say the one of the reasons what a Palooza doesn't get there is because it has so many thousands of athletes and and often has like rain delays, so it makes it harder to uh to follow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. And I thought I thought the coverage was really cool as well, like you said. It was a bit of a shame, and we kind of um had a little chat about this on on text, and I actually went out for a friend's birthday on Saturday night, and it was uh it was a CrossFit crew, so we I kind of had a bit of a chat with people there. But I think um the seats weren't full from what I could tell at the event, and I think that was partly down to the fact that it was at Drumsege, which is an awesome venue, but it is a bit out of the way, it's not really in London, it's past sort of Tottenham and North London, and you can sort of drive there and and uh uh there is a Tesco's that you can sneaky park in. I don't know if I'm if you're supposed to, but I did when I went for a gig. But to get there on the train, unless you are in and around that that particular part of London, is difficult. So I think that maybe played into it, and also the fact that it was, you know, a bit of a change in the sense that it was supposed to be somewhere else, and then the fact that it was also a bank holiday weekend here and it would have been like glorious sunshine in the UK. I think there may be some people who were like, we're gonna barbecue or had other plans. So I think those all maybe contributed to the fact that because normally if we get a comp in London, it's gonna be a full house. So it was a bit of a shame to see, but I think there were some mitigating circumstances.
SPEAKER_01I I I don't I don't think it's like the minor things, I think that's just a structural error, you know. Yeah, I because you look at the live stream, and you know, this is not like empirical evidence, but for example, on the Sunday I like was watching, and there were like 4,000 views on the WFP live stream, just because obviously we're interested in stuff. And I clicked over to Copasur and they had 12,000. And obviously, the quality of the broadcast, it was a bit like mayhem's broadcast. They said they had a fixed camera and then one would follow. And you know, I was watching in Portuguese, not that I understand Portuguese, but still. And I think it's just like it's it's what we spoke about. It was almost it's it was strange because it's kind of like the best semi-final, but it wasn't a semi-final, it's like a it's like a weird where do you place this WFP thing? Like what and I think no matter what you for people to follow something, you need some kind of storyline around it. And they're not competing to be the fittest on earth because that's kind of held by the games. So what's the what is the storyline bringing all of this together? Because the competition's great. I mean, like the the broadcast for for a crop CrossFit competition and what they deliver for the the spectator and the athlete are world class. But but as you say, I mean you're in London, you you go out with a group of CrossFitters, and instead of going to go like drive to this place to go and watch it, you just you don't, and it as not you guys, that's actually I think there were like four or five hundred people there or something like that, which you would think that you can at least get into the thousands with this thing for the for this level of of everything, really.
SPEAKER_00It is a bit of a shame. It does it doesn't seem to I have spoken to some of people I know in the space, obviously people who train gyms who are interested in going to competitions themselves as you know to throw down like there's quite a lot of people I know that are interested in um going to Xenom London, for instance, and turf games and all this kind of stuff, but no one seems to really be watching WFP from from a lot of the people I speak to. And I don't really un I don't know why. I don't know why it hasn't sort of caught anyone's interest or a lot, sorry, it's not anyone, but a lot of people's interest and imagination. I'm I'm sort of surprised.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I you just gotta I mean I think it's just gonna be until you know how much how long were you ru because it's obviously running at a loss. I mean, there's no way there's no way, shape, or form that it can generate anyone real profit. So you go, how long can you run that for?
SPEAKER_00Um But then you look at Copenhagen, it was it was rammed and it was like super sold out and everyone loved it there, and and Yeah, but I I still don't think it came near to generating profit.
SPEAKER_01I you know, I there's a there's a side story like live live golf. I I mean this is specific people, but it was big news because uh for a rough bit of context, PJ Tour being around forever, new league comes in called Live, backed by a Saudi fund. Saudi fund pays top players like millions to go and join it. The big difference was they offered they had like exclusivity rights, so PJ were like you can't do both, and live like, well, that's fine, you can't, etc. Players get divided, and this week, after like five years and something like five or four years, and like five billion being spent on it, they the Saudi's just pulled out of their investments. So, you know, everyone, you know, live is in essence folded over because it didn't get you know, at a certain point things have to become sustainable, or you don't want to keep keep running them, unless you're you'd have to be super passionate about watching CrossFit competitions to keep to keep doing that, to lose that much money and not see any kind of return. And I'm sure people would probably do it if they didn't have to lose money, but when it's losing money, it gets really hard to keep it going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, it's something that we'll keep an eye on and and uh and throughout the season, you know, obviously the first one. But it was it was kind of interesting that it doesn't seem to be generating that kind of interest, and maybe I mean like I said, maybe location and and time of year and and sudden change and all that kind of stuff. Like, like you said, there were other comps going on. It was just there was a lot going on this weekend, and maybe it got a bit lost in the noise.
SPEAKER_01I I actually had a following up from you guys talking about Xenon going to the London one, are like you the CrossFitters that you speak to in London like keen on paying like the 500 to go do the event?
SPEAKER_00I haven't spoken to that many people, but I do know a couple of people that have signed up for the event. So it'll be interesting. I think they've done I think they've I I don't know. I I I don't know on the numbers, but I think London is has generated some interest. So again, we'll try and we'll try and dig into that and find out. But it does sound like that there's there's going to be quite a few people going to the London.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I again jump jump off, but they released their their point system. Not the point system, but what you have to do to like achieve a top score. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Oh wow. So I I send you the link on um actually you might be able to bring up, so I sent you the link on uh on WhatsApp. Okay. But our our head coach, Chris, so we we have an an athlete, American athlete trains here in Myorka called Chris as well. And he's going to the first event in Dallas. A lot of people won't know Chris because he's uh off the radar a bit, but super talented athlete, I think could do really well in Dallas, and you know, maybe he's going in to set like the first the first world record. So we've been we've been following it a bit, and they released their so it's like in uh decathlon, you need, for example, they've got certain times. I mean, we were looking at this earlier because we were talking about it. So uh Chris sent me this through. So, for example, in Decathlon for the for the hundred meters that they have, they have a set time to get a thousand points and it's 1040 in order that you need to get. And then there's certain things, you know, and obviously these are like world-class times, but they they are kind of achievable, like people can get them. I have a feeling on some of these, like that I don't know if it's a possibility even to get anywhere close to the thousand, like even if you're a specialist in that area, like so Hussein Bolt, obviously, we're referencing the 100 metres because it's the first one we had, but Hussein Bolt has a 958, and that would have given him 1,202 points theoretically, and probably the only one within the Xenon that's similar to that is the snatch, because obviously you have specialists in the snatch. The the for the guys where it's 153, which is you know, we've we've seen athletes go at the 150 in CrossFit competitions, so it I suppose it kind of makes sense in that way, there or thereabouts, and the females 105. Then some of the CrossFit ones, like they're I I don't even know if they're they're doable, like to reach this this thousand mark, and and maybe that's again the goal that you want to set something that's not achievable in this in this decade, but you kind of go, well, we're thinking about this in 10 years' time, will the level have got to such a point where I can do it. And and in CrossFit, there's certain things we'd probably said said about that a little while ago. So maybe that for a bit of the reasoning.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how that plays out for sure. Especially because we're not talking about just specialists, someone's doing all these events and they've got to achieve that. So, what's going to be the knock and effect of other fatigues from other events? So that'll definitely be an interesting thing to see how it plays out.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna see I'm gonna see actually, because it's quite fun. So you the way they've done, and this is quite cool, uh the way they've done it. Because you can once you've done the workouts. Let me see if I can share my screen so I can you know, this is getting technical now. Sharing screens easiest with two monitors. Well, that's not happening. Okay, here we go. Uh can you see this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll bring it up.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So here, this is the EPI calculator. And you can see uh individual pairs, men, women, etc. etc. Uh, and they've done this very nice, which I appreciate, you know, it's a small detail, but otherwise would have had no idea about things. I appreciate the kilo and the pound uh difference.
SPEAKER_00I think that's the benefit of having Brits as as owners and and people, people who've founded the company.
SPEAKER_01And so I can go in here and I go, okay, I'm not gonna show the deers at home my true one around right now. But I go in like I've got like a hundred kilo snatch, and let's say I've tested these workouts on 50 reps, I can go through and I can kind of get what my score would be, which I think is a really nice thing. But this, like, you know, the Echo Bike, for example, I mean we literally just saw the guys go a hundred cal Echo bike at a WFP, and here 168 calories in 60 seconds. I mean, I'm gonna give myself a generous score, 50, you know. But you you can go through and then obviously at the end you can calculate your where you are, and it's kind of then ranked world class at the at the 7,000 mark. So I think this is a really nice feature that people could kind of figure about with. Um, but the uh the it'd be fascinating to see how many of these get up to the the thousand points. Do you know what event six is? I don't the unknown, the unknown and the knowable component. It'd be interesting to see what they do with event six if they like go and this changes or doesn't change or no idea.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it'd be very cool. And um but before we kind of jump back into WFP then, I'll bring I'll bring this up because they also um announced the prize money for a Dallas event. So this is on barbell spin at the moment. Uh Xenom's announced a 75,000 prize purse for the Dallas event. Um, and it looks like it's being split via um it the elite kind of um male-female pairs uh um split. So you've got$25,000 sorry for elite male,$25,000 for elite female, and then male pairs and female pairs win uh$12,500 uh for for those two pairs. Um so that's how they're gonna split it, but they're also gonna be um doing at London will receive uh the following if they break any of the score set. Um so I this looks like it's just for from the for the London event, but if the elite male individual world record is broken in something they're gonna give ten thousand dollar prize purse, um female world record also ten thousand dollars, and then pairs will be five thousand each.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think they said anytime someone breaks it, it does like this roll-on thing. Okay. So obviously the first one, there's nothing set. I think they also doubled it to make it more attractive. So the first one, the there's like a guaranteed money that you get.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it says uh I think it says under here if a world record is not broken at London or any subsequent competition, 5,000 will be added to the elite individual prize purse, and 2,500 will be added to the elite pairs. In other words, if no one breaks the record at Xenom London, the prize money for breaking the world record will increase to 15 grand for the elite individuals and seven and a half for the elite pairs at the third competition. Yeah. So it's kind of cool. I I think that's kind of cool as well to see to see it going for uh it's nice to see something different. It's always interesting, and it'll be interesting to see kind of how that affects the competition and how people show up for it. But it's kind of cool to see that like go down. I mean, when we've seen that the games when they've put on sort of more at Dubai, when they've put like prize money. I always remember there was that famous kind of Matt Fraser clip that was like, oh, they're putting uh a prize purse for this finishing this workout first. And it kind of was like someone's gonna black out kind of jokingly. I think it was on a Butter Rebros video or something. But but yeah, it's it's kind of always interesting to see that when that that's in in play, how it changes how athletes approach it, because perhaps some of the care that they would have taken to manage their fatigue for the next event kind of goes out the window. Again, I also think about James Newbury at one of the games where he just went mental on an echo bike at just to win that workout. So stuff like that, and and Reebok always had you know, if you're wearing a pair of bar shoes and win an event, there's there's been loads of cool things like that. So this maybe will add a bit of spice to that and and and add a bit of fire to the athlete's bellies around it.
SPEAKER_01I think the you know the invo I think it's fun to see new stuff come into the environment and see how it plays off. Yeah, for sure. I um I I I also I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. Oh yeah. I was I was curious about the Echo Bike from uh WFP, so um I'm um can pull it up live and I'm I'm interested to see how long it takes these guys to get to or how how far they get in the minutes. I mean obviously it's a bit of a different test because you've got to go a bit longer, so you kind of you can really let the tank go for stake.
SPEAKER_00I think they will they're around three minutes, weren't they, in WFP. Have you got them?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean some were going quick on the meeting. I can uh good time. Let me I can present this again. So this is the uh they just got on the bike as you can see, and they get like 101 because I think then the crossing the line counts as one rep. This is also a really cool thing from WFP is that people like their scores count down, and it's something super simple but really nice because you get to see when they're gonna finish. Like in a lot of CrossFit events, all the reps are super random, so you don't know, and you're counting up to this arbitrary number, whereas in WFP, like you know, as Hannah immense, they they decide to count down. It makes so much more sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I like that. I like that counting down feature as well. It's it's really nice, and again, nice part of the presentation that WFP have that that I think other comps would be nice to see them adopt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so right now we're at 50 seconds in and they've done uh 40 calories. What James has done for I mean James, I mean he can be on it. So you know he's he's also 10 calories ahead of the the field, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I fully sent it.
SPEAKER_01It would be interesting to see how how long it takes them in this to get to the I think it was 68.
SPEAKER_00Um and he's arguably in the top three Echo bike athletes. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Uh so uh 68 they need to be at uh 32, so 33 on this leaderboard when they get down. So James is kind of nearing there now. It's gonna be like 145.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's like one well over 150? Yeah, 150. Okay. Or one fifty one, something like that. So that you know, it's uh it's a pretty tool ask to get to that. Uh I I didn't show it with the I didn't share the screen with uh with the YouTube guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, so you I don't think we're able to share it on the on the stream. Um it's like streamception. So I think YouTube kind of blocks that but yeah, so you so it's just under two minutes to get to the the calories.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know that's James Sprague, who was well ahead. I mean, there were two, I think Jack Farlow and James Sprague were like well above, well ahead of the other guys. Yeah. So it'd be interesting to see what's possible in a minute. I you know, like the guys who can snatch 153 are probably likely to do very well at the the Echo Mike, so you might see some correlations there. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00I'll um I'll bring up the leaderboard so we can have a bit of a look at that from WFP. Um so and we can have a talk about a couple of workouts. Like one thing I wanted to mention just before we go into the leaderboard was ha the deadlift, which was a bit mind-blowing. Um, that we had Amy Kringle hitting over 200 kilos and about five or six other girls in the 190s, which is just bonkers. And then was it Phil Roy Peters who hit nearly 300? He was like what 290 something uh for the guys. So just some monster deadlifts. Like I was kind of a bit blown away when I was watching the the women go, if I'm honest.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the women, you know, the guys is obviously super impressive, but the women, you know, like it's just just such big numbers.
SPEAKER_00Mad. Yeah, a lot of guys would have been very, very happy with a lot of the numbers the girls were putting um in eight minutes as well. It's just yeah, just unreal. And then to be able to go ham on the Echo bike after that. I did find a couple of the first workouts, I'm not gonna lie a little slow to get in on. I thought the workouts got better as the competition went on and got a bit more exciting, some of the races, especially after um watching Mayhem the week before, where I felt like all of those events were like really watchable. I felt there were a couple here this weekend that was a bit like okay.
SPEAKER_01I I think also you go like five heats of it's just a lot, and I think that's again the advantage of mayhem. You know, you had two heats all loaded with with good athletes, you know, and it 20 athletes. It the rogue formula does work, 20 athletes would amount to follow for a crossfit competition because you get Dubai's always done that and that's worked really well. I forget what the Waterpalooza field is, I presume sometimes it's been around 20. But it gives it it's enough athl athletes that it can mix up the leaderboard, and it's kind of enough because unfortunately, once you're outside of the top 20, you're not really influencing for things like that. Sometimes you get like I don't know, you mentioned Phil Roy with a big deadlift or something like that, but it doesn't shake things up too much on the leaderboard, and therefore I think that 20 number is the key. I mean, the reason why competitions go more is obviously trying to generate money because the the more athletes you have, the in theory the depending on the competition, you get entrance fees and stuff. But I think 20 is a good sweet spot for CrossFit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree. And fair play to the commentary team, because they did five heats for men and women and they did teams. And that is just a lot of a lot of talking, a lot of play calling. And they because they commentated on all of them. It wasn't like the games where they kind of just um show the show the commentary of the of the other team of the other categories and then only voice the kind of main two heats. So fair play to them for putting in a shift as well. I thought the coverage was really good, and like you say, having Catherine on the desk was really cool. So on the on the guy side, the podium was Rem Krennick off top, followed by James Brake, then Tudor Magda, and Anolakai coming in fourth. And like you said in the last episode, Anol, uh what really wanting to prove to everyone that he's kind of the fittest in Europe. So um awesome work from him and Tudor. Then we had Nate Ackerman, Chandler Smith, Yonikoski, Jack Farlow, and Ty Jenkins with Chris Abarra rounding out the top ten. Uh any surprises here, John, on the on the male leaderboard?
SPEAKER_01Um I think that shouting out two of the males, like James Sprague, who continues to impress, like Cupnet. I think it's hard to appreciate how hard it is to go from an international competition in California one weekend, fly all the way to London, and then still perform. It's it's not easy. And also, I really like the fact that James takes these competition and they are risks, you know, because he's like willing to not show up, he's willing to show up and maybe not win. And some athletes are so scared of doing that, like I might not perform the best or whatever. But James is just out there putting himself on the floor, and I think I have a lot of respect for that.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. He seems super robust at the moment as well. Like, I mean, and maybe he hides it well, maybe he's got like little things going on, but he never seems to show any kind of like or you know, shoulder wrist, anything like that. Whereas you do sort of see some other athletes like, yeah, I'm kind of struggling with this, or or whatever. He just seems super robust or just very well good at hiding it.
SPEAKER_01Well, if you meet him in person, like he has just abundant energy. It's so impressive. Like, even in the warm-up area, competitions, you know, like him he go around speaking to people, interact with a lot of people, always ready to chat. Like his energy level is is unmatched, and that with a lot of athletes, especially a lot of the male athletes, you know, they're they're a bit the opposite of quite conservative their energy. Like after the event, they're like chilling, don't really want to talk, or so it's it's amazing his his energy. Uh, and then the other chat out it is Anyo. Like, I think that he's been talking the big game um all year about being fittest in Europe and and I I really like the fact that he backed it up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he looked really good. He had a couple of events where he was on fire and you were like, oh yeah, he's really performing.
SPEAKER_01What were the uh what were our predictions for this?
SPEAKER_00I believe I went with Roman for the win.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, you did well. I I had Tudor, no? I had like the wild, I mean it was um it was a wild card, but I went for I didn't do too badly on the on the males.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And on the female side of the house, Amy Kringle uh takes.
SPEAKER_01Was it your your your pick again? I mean, you're smashing me in these predictions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did, I did go for Amy over Laura this time. I don't know why I just thought like kind of Amy hasn't kind of done a semi-final yet, and she'd be brewing after not winning last year, she'd be kind of coming out firing. So yeah, Amy took the win, Laura comes in second. Um to be honest, I had not I did not expect Amy to pour 200 kilos. I thought out of all of the field, I thought she was gonna be, you know, up there, but I thought I didn't think she was gonna outlift Laura by like 20 kilos or whatever it was in the end. It was just outrageous.
SPEAKER_01I think it was actually like a games-winning performance this weekend from Yeah, I felt the same. She just really she was just a step uh a step ahead. And the events were great for Laura, uh, you know, Echo Bike, Deadlift. There wasn't, you know, there wasn't the classic strict pressing S aspect that comes up. And so for Amy to kind of put on that level of performance, it was very impressive. And you know, we we've spoken about the I think it's you know necessarily okay the depth of the level wasn't there compared to last year. Um and so it kind of highlighted that separation more, but it was really interesting to to see her in in such good shape.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Um so Laura comes in second, Emma comes in third, Emma having a Amitol that is having a few shoulder injuries, she said, and um winning that muscle up workout, which she was she was stoked about because apparently she hadn't done muscle up since she um the last WFP event because of a shoulder injury. And then all the Norwegians uh who you know had I think uh throughout the competition all had a an event where they kind of hit a bit of a home run, or or especially with a deadlift, there was some super impressive performances. So Ula Luckfirm, uh Andrew Solberg, Var Thurman Moe, and Matilda Garnes, who was back in competition, which is great to see. So they were fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Um, then was Sidney Wells, and then Jennifer Muir, who also came in ninth. Um, so another Brit, uh a Scots, I should say, uh, very much got a Scottish flag next to her name. But I think that's a strong request, the uh the Scott. Yeah, I mean if you saw her outfit during the deadlift, yeah, I think you'll know she's a very proud uh uh Scott and and yeah, did an amazing job on the deadlift as well. But yeah, she came in ninth, and then Ella Wilkinson in 10th, so who is now training with uh Amy Kringles, part of the kind of brute team, and and training with her and Harry. Um, so um she seems to be kind of taking that next step forward as well. So really exciting to uh to see the women and then but perhaps this you know, obviously people like Laura excluding, but this gives us a bit of a preview for what's gonna happen at the games. And I'm gonna say something a bit risky, but I have a I I've got a feeling that we might, for the first time since um Sam Briggs, have a female lady on top of the uh podium.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but you can't you can't edge your bets with both Lucy and Amy. You have that's that's kind of cheating in this prediction.
SPEAKER_00It is, it is, but I do think that it's it's the um this is the year out of out of any of the ones we've had. This is the first year where I feel kind of really confident that we're gonna get. I mean, we could end up with both of them on the podium, which would be incredible, but they're they're just both doing so well. Hopefully, as long as they're like fit and healthy and that they have from now. And I think Amy's still got to qualify correct.
SPEAKER_01So Amy does disqualify. And this is one quite interested because you know the European females, again, a lot of depth, and there are a lot of the European females not competing this weekend. It's like I think French and Madrid are gonna be pretty stacked. No, I I also think there's something about qualifying for the games through an in-person rather than having to do it online. And so it'd be nice to see how it goes for for all of these girls trying to qualify through Europe. I mean, French would be stacked, only three spots. Madrid, you know, it's gonna be a bit less stacked because you'd have had some more people qualify, but even still, it's gonna be it's gonna be really interesting to qualify. And we've we've seen this, like, you know, um it's funny switching on Far East and seeing two Europeans there who uh who usually uh uh would be would have been at those competitions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, let's move into some of the others then. So well, let me find the next calm. There's so many of them. There's like you said, Copacur and Farry. So let's go to Copasur next. So um this weekend we had Copusur and um here I pulled up the leaderboard, so again, for those audio only, Annika Greer won Copusur with Miley Wade, who I've not heard of. John, I'm not sure if you you if you're aware of Miley, but those are new name as well. Okay, so um Annika Greer and Miley Wade qualified for the CrossFit Games. Um, and then I don't recognise a huge amount of the field underneath them, um, apart from maybe Tristy Smith and Emily Andrade. Um otherwise, a lot of these names are new to me. I don't know if there's anyone else here you recognise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Luisa Marquez. I mean, there's a lot of the that community, the the kind of Latin American community. This is obviously super strong. I mean, that's why they have like triple the amount even compared to WFP watching. So these names, I think like there's Alexa who qualify Alexa Williams who qualified through one year, Andrea Pinheiro who's been through as well. So there's like a lot in this in this list that are very well known through uh through Latin America. And I I again I need to fact check this, but I don't know if a a non-Latin American has qualified through Latin America before. Oh, interesting. So like Annika Gritt both were both being American. I don't know if that's that's happened.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. So those are the those are the two women that qualified, and then on the men's side, I'm not familiar with either of these names, Kalen, Sousa, and Benjamin Reyes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Kalen's he's he's been around a long time. He's based in Dubai, so does a lot of those competitions. But I'm actually amazed because I didn't see the final, but Joao like Pedro was way ahead. So something the final must have really shaken up the the leaderboard.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, because he was he was, I mean, just smashing. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Maybe maybe one to go and go back and have a look at. But those are those are the four that have qualified out of Copasul. Um, but as we mentioned, there was also the Far East throwdown on at the weekend. So um there are a winner on the women and men's side for this competition. So Syria Meha on the women's side qualified for the games, and on the guys' side, it was Henrik Hapelainen, as you mentioned, a European went over and won. So great to see Henrik back. Henrik's been injured, correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't he get injured at Rogue or am I and so he'll be back at the games, which would be great.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah, he he's gonna be back after his injury. I mean, a lot of people saw it that year with both Gabby and uh Henrik going out of Rogue with the Achilles. So he him being back, I presume. So Henry had a lot easier his recovery was smoother than uh than Gabby, so he was back a lot quicker. But obviously now Gabby's she was at Mayhem, so looking to get her ticket back. And I don't I don't think it'd be much of a problem for her either.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, nice so more qualified to to the games. So we're starting to see uh some of these qualify. Then there was also the Legends Championship. Um and I think did Alan Pepper and Olivia Kirsteza qualify from from that competition as well as James Brague and Ail Girl Domit?
SPEAKER_01No, they qualified through that was last weekend though. So that's where they they qualified through. Yeah, you're right. But I think the games might have on the current list of qualifiers.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's we're starting to try and piece it together. Like I think you mentioned last week it'd be great if they had a just an overall leaderboard so you could see who who would qualified because you're gonna otherwise you haven't to try and piece all of this together. Um, but we're starting to kind of see people people qualify for the for the games now, which is great.
SPEAKER_01We had it up last week, I think. The official list. The but I sent you nice as I was messaging the guy, the owners of Circle 21, saying, Can you put together like a just like a leaderboard that includes I mean it it's honestly I mean we spoke about this last week. We went on a bit of a rant of like a low-hanging fruit for I went on the rant. I won't drag you down with me, Adam.
SPEAKER_00No, that's okay. I'm I'm very capable of uh going down a rabbit hole or or going into a rant myself.
SPEAKER_01So um uh but the low-hanging fruit of just putting together a lead like a shared leaderboard seems like the simplest thing in order to kind of have some connectivity. And this I mean and it's really like one thing with competition corner, it is surprisingly difficult to navigate and find the competition that you want. Yeah, and it's really frustrating because you're like, okay, you put Cubasaur Leaderboard, and competition that's like 2025, and you go, okay, 2026. You put in 26, and it's the qualifiers, and then you've got to look for the finals, and uh it's just a you really have to want to find the results, and as a you know, if you're a general observer, it's you can see why people don't really follow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it can be really tricky for sure, navigating comp sites and stuff. Yeah, I think you like I think you're right. There is some real low-hanging fruit there. Hopefully, someone someone fixes it. Um, but you know, it could be this guy as a bit of a segue into uh CrossFit last week, just to add on to the the loads of new new announcements and competitions and all the other news in the space. CrossFit named Bruce Edwards as the new CEO of CrossFit. And he'll succeed Don Fall as the company CEO from May 4th. So today, today is his first day. Um, I hope you have a good first day, Bruce. Um yeah, just put an hour there, a bit of positivity, because I know this position's been quite a hot seat for a little while, so hopefully he does well. Um if you're not aware, Bruce actually has worked for CrossFit before as the um COO um from 2013 to 2019. So he was kind of there at the the the the golden era of CrossFit, the one the one that myself and John you know constantly bring up as our favourite time of CrossFit era. Um the I haven't I I don't know much about other than that about Bruce, but I was listening to some of the other people in the podcast space, in particular talking elite fitness, who obviously both worked with Bruce when they were both at the at HQ and gave him sort of a glowing write-up really and said that he kind of gets it and he's he's he really understands CrossFit and helped steer the ship around when in the early days when CrossFit were were struggling financially and kind of is is is a good dude and and uh hopefully has some positivity that he can bring back to the space. So I guess what is space? You've got any thoughts on the on the news initially, John?
SPEAKER_01It seems like a super sensible choice. I mean he's I mean he's from the OG, like he apparently was like doing spinning classes with Greg Glassman before CrossFit was a thing. So, you know, according to Savan, he he seems to have like I think he's got the the the level of OG that he can kind of like outrank everyone in that position, as you say, had and led or operated CrossFit in uh in his most successful time. So it seems like a sensible choice. Um and it's gonna be fascinating to hear if one if he has a vision, which I'm sure he does, and two, if he shares that vision and how transparent he'll be in voicing that, because as we've mentioned many a time, that CrossFit has been without a bit of direction and someone to share that direction, and Don, it's hard to know what he did behind the scenes, but he definitely wasn't uh like a face of the company or in front of the company, so it's I mean it's gonna be interesting. I also they kind of glossed over it as well, but it was like with the I I read the official um statement from CrossFit, and with the official statement, they were like, Okay, with this kind of comes the ending of searching for a buyer, which is pretty huge. I mean, for a company just to suddenly announce that it's going, you know, it's a big company going for sale, not going for sale. So yeah, it seems sensible, and I think everyone's just watching the space to see what the you know what the direction holds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and just on the barbell spin article that we've got up in front of us, um, they've got some words from Bruce, and it was that what he kind of penned, it was titled CrossFit Change the World and We're Not Done. Um and he kind of I won't read all of it, but I'll just give you a bit of a flavor if you're listening to this and kind of haven't seen the news. But he said, Today I'm on a step into the role of CrossFit CEO. My first official day will be May 4th, which is today. This isn't just a professional milestone for me, it's a return to something that's always felt like home. For those that don't know me, I've been part of the community since the very beginning. In in the late 1990s, I was among a small group of people being coached by Greg Glassman. So if you don't know, Greg actually used to coach people. That's kind of how he came up with CrossFit and used to get thrown out of gyms, and there's a lot of that kind of stuff. If you ever listen to Greg talk or or read the old the old journals, but yeah, he goes on to say um on what would become the CrossFit methodology, he created the simple but powerful methodology, consistently varied functional movements, performed at high intensity. That was the formula, and it worked, and it changed how we trained, and for many of us, how we lived. Like I said, I won't read all of it, but it there's there's kind of more of that kind of stuff. And he goes into detail about what CrossFit is for him and how his a bit of his kind of how he sees it and a vision experience around it. So um, yeah, hopefully, hopefully bringing someone like him in who not only has the knowledge and experience of CrossFit, but also the financial now to um make CrossFit profitable in the first place back in the day. Um, and we've talked about a lot about that really. It seems that the finances are a big problem when it comes to taking CrossFit and the sport of CrossFit forward. Um, so hopefully you can have a really positive impact in that.
SPEAKER_01Let's go, Bruce.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, very much, very much so. Uh I'd be interested to see who whether you know the team he gets around him, how whether we see any changes at HQ as a related.
SPEAKER_01The big one, the big thing's Castro. Yes, yes. Does Castro stay or does Castro go? And it's I it's a fascinating thing. Actually, I remember when there were this is my uh you know, so you you chat with people or I chat with people. I had a prediction, and this was um round about after the games last year and the sale and things were going on, and I was like, I always felt well not felt, but always listened, I listened, obviously listened to a lot of Castro's stuff. And he'd always spoken about this 20th games being his big thing. Like he wanted to get to 20 games, he'd always has it in his head, and that's why the one year that he didn't do it kind of frustrated him because of this 20th year thing. So I wonder if that's still a a fact, like does 20 games and all of a sudden goes, actually, I'm you know, I'm done on this side of things and walk away. And I I always kind of thought that I could see that see that happening. So maybe it's a clear one for both of them that they go, look, it's 20 years, hand the reins over to someone else. Bruce is you know kind of outranking in the level of OG of even even Castro and even some ways, like the involvement of the company through those through those years, so being at like uh being on the C-suite level and managing the operation. So it would seem like a clean a clean way to do the future. And I think it could it would be really interesting to see what those those choices are, and I think that's probably the the biggest forward-facing choice in some ways of who he keeps in the in the staff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, he's obviously the most visual side of things, maybe a couple of the media team that people know from from documentaries and other stuff, but it's pretty much Dave Castro is probably the only one that most people on the outside of CrossFit would be able to name as someone who works at CrossFit HQ these days.
SPEAKER_01And I think it's like it becomes like an interesting way, like again, is it a way to unite the the community again and to can if someone I you know because I think a lot there's a lot of the you know keep using the word OGs and it just kind of refers to these people who maybe stepped away from CrossFit as well because they didn't agree with some of the direction, but then having respect for this guy from before, does that kind of bring them back into the fold and then set a new direction going forward? I it seems like a really sensible choice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, also and I think also nice that it's not like it's not being sold in the way this is like a temporary CEO to get the sale done. Because I think you know it it was a probably another easy thing, well not easy. But like private equity to come in and go, look, we brought in this CEO, what's his job to get this sale done, clean up the company for that reason? And it would probably just left us on hold even more with what's happening in that direction.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, look, I try not to be too skeptical, but I mean they said that in their announcement, but you never know. You know, it's always easy better to sell sell something when you tell people you're not selling it because you can put the price up. I don't know that they're doing that. I'm not saying that they're doing that, but you know, I still wouldn't be shocked if they do sell it this year at some point either. You know, I mean, you never know, like especially if he does a really good job and turns stuff around.
SPEAKER_01But I think it's our um, you know, the people listening, it's just our culture. You know, you've got to be a little bit cynical if you want to be British.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's true. It is true.
SPEAKER_01It's uh it's it's definitely part of the you know, you can't listen to this for pure positivity. We need some cynicism in here.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, apologies. That is the the inner brick coming out, the the slight cynicism, but I think just CrossFit feels like it's been in state of flux since 2018. So um it'd be nice. I like I hope I wish Bruce all the success and hope he uh does bring some stability and stuff back to the company because like I said, it does feel like it's been a bit chaos ever since, ever since 2018. And even before that, you know, there was there's stories out there, I won't go into them now, but there's definitely stories from from even before then where it was a bit chaos, like people from the media team talking about how like you know they did broadcasts and it was just flat out carnage back in the day, but it looked like it was I think it's really hard to you know imagine a bit like Hyrux, but the Hyrulex seemed to manage their growth well going from this, you know.
SPEAKER_01I mean, when when you see the people like someone like Bruce getting in as COO, I mean the the people were so connected back then, it was such a small circle because it it starts, you know, it just snowballed so quickly, and all of a sudden you've got to manage this huge company in a very different way. And I think if the foundations aren't set to do that, it can be a really challenging endeavor.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Well, gives us more to talk about on the podcast in the coming weeks, so that's always a good thing as well. And before we wrap up, you mentioned before we came on air and you kind of teased last week, but the the mad champ fitness championship workouts we will be able to talk about next week. Next week is potentially when we'll be able to talk about them on next week.
SPEAKER_01Um I've got confirmation now. So next Monday we will be releasing the semi-final workouts for the Mad Fitness Festival. Which, as you say, is very, very exciting. And we'll do it live. So, like, we'll do it live. People can ask comments on YouTube uh to go through. So yeah, I definitely think it's going to be an exciting one to uh tune into. And and yeah, I I'll leave it there and leave that suspense for for one week's time.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. So, team, if you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast, if you're listening to this audio only and you haven't joined us on YouTube yet, that's totally cool. But next Monday, 6 p.m. UK time, 7 p.m. Spanish time, and there's a link in the description of this podcast that you're listening to today. Click on that, you go to the YouTube channel, and you'll be able to watch us talk about the workouts. If again the time timing doesn't work out and you'd rather listen to audio only, maybe on your commute to work or wherever you listen to us, then you'll be able to do that as well. But if you want to see it, with we'll have the video up on the screen, we'll go through the workouts, we'll be talking about them, and John will be giving us all the inside tips and uh tricks on the workouts that as well, I'm sure. So at least some at least some at least some cool stuff.
SPEAKER_01So I'll try and speak with Alfonso as well. Maybe we can do a cool giveaway for people in the comments as well, to bring Madrid in as well.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that'd be excellent. Very cool. Nice. Um, John, is there anything else you want to discuss the sweet before we wrap up?
SPEAKER_01No, I think we're very efficient in our in our review. And next we what next weekend is everything goes online with the the age group. So there's no uh no I mean, I hope I'm not wrong, but there's no in-person next weekend, so it fits well for the for the releasing because we don't have to to review. I mean the the you know that I think it'd be interesting to see like because obviously you've got people qualifying through live and in person for the the age groups, and we have some athletes going going through and doing, but in terms of semi-final action, there's a bit of a pause next week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we've got a bit of a couple of weeks, haven't we, until we got kick off again. Uh any uh programme athletes competing at any semi-finals soon?
SPEAKER_01Um the next one will be French. So this week we have the age groups, which we have a few athletes competing in, and then we go into it's a bit of a big run. So we have French throwdown, where we'll we'll have a lot of athletes because it's you know the European ones will obviously have a lot of athletes. We also have a couple um of athletes going to Africa the weekend after for the rebel radio gay games, and Chris will be going down with them as well, and then the following week we go to Madrid, where we'll have the we have the Crown, Madrid, and and a few more. So next week's or this weekend's kind of chill, and then actually things it becomes like a busy a busy three, four weeks. Because after that there's a break, and then you go on to the online. I don't actually I think Madrid might be the Yeah, Madrid's the last well, there's a there's a couple on that weekend, but the last in-person opportunity to to qualify, and then there's a week gap, and then everyone goes into the online.
SPEAKER_00Exciting. It could mean that Madrid ends up being very busy. But if you want to know what the workouts are, team, next week, join us live on the on the YouTubes, live as on the podcast. We'll break down all of the workouts. As John said, we'll announce them, and then we'll try and keep you updated on on how the program athletes are getting on as well. And um, and yeah, wish them all the all the best over the coming weeks. Nice. Well, John, pleasure as always. We rattled through loads this week. So hopefully you found that interesting team. And um, yeah, next week looking at all the workouts. Thanks very much, John, and uh, team, we'll catch you next week.